Author: Michael Barnett
Australia Day 2023 honours for elder abuse law trailblazer, Indigenous activist and a fossil hunter | The Guardian
LETTER: Archbishop Julian Porteous: Everything his way
(Background reading: ABC: Stop misrepresenting Martine Delaney’s complaint about the Tasmanian Catholic Church and Archbishop Julian Porteous)
Letter in the Hobart Mercury, January 19 2022:
EVERYTHING HIS WAY
ARCHBISHOP Julian Porteous is all over the place on free speech. Last week he said Tasmania’s law against humiliating, intimidating and bullying behaviour needs to be overridden by Canberra so he can “feel comfortable” to “respectfully” express his religious views.
I don’t recall Jesus insisting on the right to humiliate people, so what does the Archbishop want to say that he can’t say now? One clue might be in the booklet he distributed against marriage equality that suggested same-sex marriage will “mess with kids”. This claim prompted a complaint that was subsequently dropped when the Archbishop refused to amend the disrespectful phrase, and the booklet is still distributed today.
The Archbishop has silenced members of his own church, including Father Frank Brennan whose invitation to speak in Hobart was revoked because he supported marriage equality.
It seems the Archbishop wants everything his own way: he wants to define what is “respectful”, he only wants free speech when he is talking, and he wants a special exemption from laws the rest of us have to abide by. We should not allow the law to be made by people who think they are above it.
Peter Grayson-Weeks
Beauty Point
Just like that, it’s gone…
Did anyone notice there’s something missing along Winbirra Parade Ashwood? A couple of days ago it dawned on me there was one less Telstra payphone.
I recall some years ago there was a consultation on whether the payphone outside 45 Winbirra Parade Ashwood should be removed but wasn’t aware of anything beyond that.
According to Telstra’s Public Consultation Document appearing on their list of Payphone removal proposal notifications (as archived on August 3 2021) there wasn’t a strong business case for keeping it, unsurprisingly.
For the historians in our midst, I’ve collated a number of photos of the payphone taken between 2008 and 2019 courtesy of Google Maps’ Street View, along with one I took on January 7 2021 of the space it used to occupy.
45336-pcd-outside-45-winbirra-parade-ashwood-vic-3147
Lyle “Monsta Mary” Shelton cancels himself
It’s all about Lyle…
When The Australian ran three hatchet-job front-pages on me a few years back and then stopped putting me on their front page I felt cancelled. Yup, I was like “Shit, The Australian doesn’t love me any more. They loved me enough to put me on their front page three times, but I guess they’re a bit over me now so they’re going to cancel me”. And I accepted being cancelled by The Australian. It took some getting over, but I put my big-boy pants on and got on with my life. And it was good.
Someone who just hasn’t found their big-boy pants is Lyle Shelton. Self-described serial loser, Shelton is chucking a massive tanty because The Courier-Mail has, according to him, cancelled him:
The journalist, Leanne Edminstone, did not seek an interview with me so that I could give my side of the story.
That’s today’s cancel culture in action.
Lyle “I can’t find my big-boy pants” Shelton: “DRAG QUEENS, CANCEL CULTURE AND THE COURIER MAIL”
The poor flopsicle. Really, he thinks he got cancelled by The Courier-Mail. Nah, he didn’t get cancelled. He’s got a huge 10″ platform, bigger than most, and probably beer-can sized too. He’s got his blog, he’s got his twitters, and his facebooks, and he’s even got a pamphlette called “No Shit, Shelton”. There’s nothing remotely cancelled about this dudely dude.
He maya gotten ignored, coz he’s, you know, a serial loser. Couldn’t get it up for marriage. Couldn’t even get it up for Cory, and that’s saying sumpthink, coz Cory’s certainly got that stud-factor, if you can overlook that knuckle-grazing aspect of his personality (although I do know some guys who are quite drawn to that look, but that’s another story).
One might think that ranting and wailing about not being interviewed for a story is puerile, or petulant, or just a little egotistical. And you’re probably right on all three counts.
I bet Shelton is secretly moist about being taken to the QHRC. It probably gives him wood, much like a toothpick, or one of those environmentally friendly cotton-buds made of a sliver of bamboo. He’s revelling in the publicity he’s going to be getting, on his Lyle “woe is me, I’m the victim (again)” Shelton Shit-Show Roadshow. Just watch him. He loves the attention.
Never mind the collateral damage wielded by his homophobia and transphobia. He can’t see that, but he’s good at not seeing it. The real victims are the beautiful queer folk he targets maliciously with his anti-LGBTIQ+ bigotry. But he’s so blind to that because It’s All About Lyle.
Lyle Shelton bullshits the Queensland Human Rights Commission
According to Lyle Shelton’s personal website he made a representation to the Queensland Human Rights Commission today:
I’ve just finished in the compulsory Queensland Human Rights Commission conciliation with two LGBTIQA+ drag queens, relating to a post on my blog last January. The complaint did not resolve and I now have an anxious wait to see if I am to be taken to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for the matter to be heard before a judge. The complainants have 28 days in which to lodge this action or it lapses. Thanks to everyone who has been praying, I will keep you updated as further news comes to hand. Below is the opening statement I made at the QHRC this morning.
UPDATE FROM THE “DRAG QUEEN” CASE AGAINST ME IN THE QHRC
He goes on to state:
I consider myself somewhat battle hardened. My office was bombed by a LGBTIQA+ political activist in 2016 causing shock and trauma to me and my staff (as well as $100,000 of damage to our building). After this another same-sex marriage activist by the name of Michael Barnet put my home address on the internet as a way of intimidating me and my family.
True to form Lyle Shelton has distorted reality.
It is completely without substance that my actions were “a way of intimidating [him] and [his] family”.
I refute his damaging fabrication totally.
I note that Dave Pellowe at “Self-Sauce: where our cum shots get us in the eye every time” has republished Lyle’s utter load of crap on his “free speech” site (the one where I am banned from commenting).
At The Good Sauce “free speech” comes at a cost
The good folk at The Good Sauce have an interesting way of doing business.
According to their About statement they’re a “free speech platform”:
ABOUT
We believe you want a source of news & opinions you can trust. You want a media source that is not compromised by anti-everything narratives. This is:
Some of the best conservative thinkers in Australia and New Zealand have combined their independent voices here to build a free speech platform with shows you can watch or listen to as well as articles you can read.
We might sometimes disagree with each other or even you, and that’s okay. We’ll do so with sincerity & civility, and you’ll get to reach your own informed conclusions.
What must not be compromised is good public policy, or Truth.
Three days ago I posted a very respectful comment on an article on their site:
Tonight I went to post another similarly respectful comment on another article on their site. To my surprise I found they had banned me from commenting. No explanation, no warning, no nothing.
They’re welcome to set the rules on their site, but it’s hard to take them seriously when on the one hand they claim they’re all about free speech, sincerity and civility, and on the other hand they shut down people they don’t want to hear from without even an explanation.
Free speech, yeah nah.
Lyle Shelton tells a little fib about me (well, not so little…)
Today Lyle Shelton told a little fib about me. To be honest, it isn’t quite so little a fib. It’s more of a glaringly outrageous, Mardi Gras-scale besequinned, bare-buttocked leather-chapped, Dyke-on-Bike bare-breasted, buff muscled, ripped and toned type of untruth.
“No way!” I hear you all cry, in stunned bewilderment and flabbergastrication. “Not Daddy Lyle, the most honest, most righteous soldier of Christian godliness”. “Not that man who tried to derail the right of same-sex couples to get married, because seriously, we know Jesus was a friend of the oppressed and would have loved a Big Gay Wedding, and that’s not our Lyle!!!!!”.
I Kid You Not. Yes, that Lyle. The #ESL 🌈 warrior one.
To elaborate, this is what he had to say about me in the latest blog on his site (with one spelling mistake uncorrected):
I have a supressed address for safety reasons after my office was bombed by a same-sex marriage activist in 2016. Following that incident, a prominent rainbow political activist, Michael Barnett, placed my home address on the internet to intimidate me and my family.
DRAG QUEENS TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ME IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
I’m hurt. Not like when you see your first grey pubic hair, or when you realise your hairline isn’t quite what it once used to be. Not that sort of hurt. More like the hurt you experience when someone makes up a complete lie about you, publishes it online and then claims to be an upholder of religious values that include not telling lies about others.
I wrote about the time Lyle Shelton tried to set the cops on me in 2017. I urge you to read about it, as it might help you understand the sort of person Lyle Shelton is, in all of his “integrity”, “honour” and “decency”.
